FAQ on Changes to the Common Metrics

What changes are being made to the Common Metrics?

1) Grantees that selected “MP 22:Completed requirements in a CTE pathway, but did not receive a certificate or a degree” should select a different metric.

Most colleges do not have the ability to track which students met the requirements of a program but did not complete, because program requirements change year by year. In addition, colleges may not have up-to-date information on whether courses that students took at other colleges meet the requirements necessary for completion at their institution.

Colleges that selected this metric for grants such as the CTE Enhancement Fund should work with their grant monitor to select an alternate Momentum Point.

2) Most of the metrics that require use of the Additional Tracking Tool will now be captured using other means.

K-12 Activity Metrics

A number of the K-12 metrics are being converted from Momentum Points, which entail tracking the participation of individual students, to Leading Indicators, which only need to be reported in aggregate numbers. For example, rather than tracking which 362 students participated in a career fair, grantees will only be expected to report that a total of 362 students participated in career fairs. These figures should be included in the annual, end-of-year report the Chancellor’s Office.

These metrics include:

MP 1: Completed an individual career and skills awareness workshop in middle school that included a normed assessment process and was in a Doing WhatMATTERS priority or emerging sector

MP 2: Completed a bridge program between middle school and high school and revised student career/education plan

MP 3: Completed a student orientation and assessment program while in middle school or high school

MP 8: Completed a bridge program between high school and college in a CTE pathway

MP 13:During high school, participated in an internship, work-based learning,mentoring, or job shadowing program in a CTE pathway.

Transitional Metrics

One metric, MP 6: Completed a CTE articulated course, should now be gathered using either the CATEMA system or tracked at each college and entered into the LaunchBoard by the local data upload point person. CATEMA is a fee-based service, which grantees are not required to purchase. Grantees that plan to use CATEMA must ensure that an MOUis signed by each participating institution, giving permission to share this information with Cal-PASS Plus (find out more information on the Doing What Matters website under LaunchBoard resources at:http://doingwhatmatters.cccco.edu/Launchboard/Resources.aspx). Grantees who selected this metric and feel that it will not be possible to report on it for the 2014-15 grant year can select an alternative Momentum Point.

Hybrid Metrics

The Additional Tracking Tool is also being used in a supplementary fashion to track two community college metrics,MP 19: Completed a work readiness soft skills training program (either stand-alone or embedded)within a CTE pathway and MP 27:Participated in a college internship or workplace learning program within a CTE pathway. Currently, colleges are being asked to report on soft skills training and work-based learning that is embedded in college coursework by having the local data upload point person at each college upload information on the students who participated in courses that include these components. In addition,grantees were being asked to track stand-alone activities using the Additional Tracking Tool.Now, grantees only need to track activities that are happening as a component of a course and do not need to track or use the Additional Tracking Tool to report stand-alone activities.

Contract Education

One metric should still be tracked using the Additional Tracking Tool–MP 33:Participated in incumbent worker training or contract education in a CTE pathway (for example training for layoff aversion, meeting heightened occupational credentialing requirement, transitioning employees whose occupations are being eliminated, or up-skilling existing employees). In the short term, grantees will need to have contract education participants self-enroll using the Additional Tracking Tool,rather than uploading records on contract education participants. The Chancellor’s Office will establish a working group that includes contract education coordinators and grantees to develop a longer-term solution to track contract education participation.

Why are changes being made to the Additional Tracking Tool?

Educational institutions may track student-level information for the purpose of improving curriculum and evaluating programs. However, this type of data sharing requires that MOUs be established between the educational institutions and Cal-PASS Plus, the entity that hosts the LaunchBoard. Currently, all community colleges have MOUs with Cal-PASS Plus, but many K-12 institutions do not. Because the Additional Tracking Tool was being used by people who don’t hold a formal data-reporting roll at the institution or were from institutions that did not have an MOU with Cal-PASS Plus, the Chancellor’s Office determined that it would be more prudent to track information using means that have the appropriate permissions. In the case of contract education, participants who self enroll will provide consent fort heir data to be included in the LaunchBoard as part of that registration process.

Are there additional plans for changing the Common Metrics?

The data work group created by Workforce and Economic Development Division grantees to support statewide career pathways design is working to identify a streamlined set of core metrics for CTE success. This list will be vetted by the SB1070 directors and discussed by community college and K-12 practitioners on March 26 at the Spring CCCAOE conference in San Francisco (for more information on the conference, visit http://www.cccaoe.org/2015-spring-conference-home). Then final proposed list will then be reviewed by the Chancellor’s Office, leading to a new set of Common Metrics for the 2015-16 grant year. These metrics will also be shared with the California Department of Education, in an effort to better align reporting requirements for K-12 and community college grants.

Where do I direct questions or comments about these changes to the Common Metrics?